Adding to the ongoing hate-mongering against France, controversial poet Munawwar Rana made a condemnable remark on the brutal beheading of French History teacher Samuel Paty by an Islamist terrorist. Supporting the beheading of Paty, Rana said that he would have done the same. Speaking to Zee News over France attacks, Rana made this highly insensitive remark.
“Agar abhi koi shaksh mere baap cartoon koi aisa ba de koi ganda, mera maa cartoon koi aisa ganda bna de to hum to usko maar denge” (If someone makes an objectional caricature of my father or my mother then we will kill him.), said Rana. Pretending that he equally respected Hindu deities, Rana said he would be equally offended if anyone created a caricature of Hindu gods and goddesses like Lord Ram or goddess Sita and that he would kill the person.
Justifying his views on beheading, Rana wrongly claimed honour killing has been allowed in the country for thousands of years so why could this not be allowed. “jab hindustan me hazaro saal se honour killing ko jayaz maan lia jata h koi saza nhi hoti h to fir aap usko najayaz kaise keh skte hain” (Honour killing has been allowed for thousands of years in Hindustan, no punishment is provided for this. If that is allowed, how could this be wrong?). This was a blatant lie as honour killing is not allowed in the country, and if such practices were allowed hundreds of years ago in some places, that can’t justify terror attacks now.
Rana’s daughters participated in anri-CAA protests
Rana’s daughter Urusha was recently appointed as the head of women’s wing of Uttar Pardesh Congress. All the three daughters of Rana namely, Fauza, Sumaiyya and Urusha had participated in the anti-CAA protests. While addressing an anti-CAA rally in Aligarh Muslim University, poet Munawwar Rana’s daughter, Sumaiya Rana had urged the protestors to not give up on their Muslim identity. “We are Muslims first then anything else”, she said.
Rana’s Hindu Hatred
Sahitya Akademi Award winning poet Munawwar Rana had referred to Hindus as ‘animals’ who only come in handy while voting and Muslims as ‘humans’ in a tweet posted in May this year. Criticising the BJP government over measures to combat Covid-19 pandemic, Rana had remarked, “After seeing government’s failure on coronavirus, it has been proven that there are 35 crore humans and 100 crore animals”. Upset with the Supreme Court decision on Ram Janmabhoomi, Rana had made extremely repugnant remarks against former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi by comparing him with a prostitute. “Even a prostitute in India charges more for selling herself than Ranjan Gogoi did”, he said.